Virtual Reality Theater, 2018
ANTIGONE :: COMEBACK is a journey back in time 70 years into the theater laboratory of the future and a reencounter with its protagonists: Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel. Suspiciously eyed by the Swiss alien police, the couple arrives unknown in Chur in the first days of January 1948 and takes up residence in the Hotel "Stern". Brecht's adaptation of "Antigone" for the experimental Theater Chur with Weigel in the title role is his first practical work in Europe since leaving Germany in 1933. Weigel, too, who at forty-seven is actually too old to play Antigone, has not been on a stage for fifteen years. Both are existentially dependent on the success of "Antigone." For Weigel, her career is at stake; for Brecht, his entire theatrical model. Beneath the conflict of Antigone and Creon, of law-abidingness and freedom, of tyranny and resistance, is the struggle between Brecht and his partner Weigel.
The "Antigone" rehearsal is about nothing less than the laws of play and reality. Equipped with VR glasses, the viewer goes alone into the scenic installation by the artist trio RAUM+ZEIT. They get very close to Brecht and Helene Weigel, both live and virtually, and embark on a subjective journey inside.
DIRECTOR: Bernhard Mikeska
TEXT: Lothar Kittstein
DRAMATURGY: Alexandra Althoff
STAGEDESIGN: Duri Bischoff
STAGE 360°: Video Bert Neumann (†), Barbara Steiner, Duri Bischoff
COSTUMEDESIGN: Eva Karobath
SOUNDDESIGN: Knut Jensen
360° VIDEO: Winnie Christiansen, Felix Patzke, Fabian Fischer
PRODUCER: Lukas Piccolin
CO-PRODUCTION: Brechtfestival Augsburg, Landestheater Vorarlberg Bregenz